Unacceptable environmental cost and little or no benefit: time for EPA to suspend use. "This class of pesticides, often referred to as neonics, has been linked to the decline of bees and other environmental harm. The agency's analysis, released Thursday, found that there was little to no benefit to using neonicotinoid seed treatments on soybean yields. Such neonic-treated seeds, first registered for use in soybeans in 2004, were applied on an average of 30% of soybean acres between 2008 and 2012, EPA states. The analysis notes that some growers report having difficulties in obtaining non-treated seed. It also states that 'much of the observed use is preventative and may not be currently providing any actual pest management benefits'...Environmental groups welcomed the analysis, and said it provided more proof that the agency should take the ecological-protective approach and suspend the use of neonics." Jim

GE crops use MORE chemicals - not less. In an uncommon demonstration of scientific integrity, EPA scientist Dr. Ramon Seidler scolds both financially-conflicted chemical companies and a media-inflicted-blindness for the unacknowledged reality of INCREASING chemical usage in GE crops. "He also points out that much of the popular press has been slow to notice – and some outlets continue to erroneously claim – that GE crop systems cut the use of toxic pesticides. Chemical companies profit from selling the herbicides, insecticides and fungicides they produce. So it’s no surprise that they’re not bending over backwards to develop products that would actually require less use of those products. To the contrary, Monsanto’s Roundup, in combination with 'Roundup-ready' herbicide-tolerant seeds, require ever more glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) in order to kill the 'superweeds' that evolved as a result of overuse of Roundup. Dr. Seidler points out that America’s use of glyphosate has increased 12-fold since 1996 and helped spawn more than 60 million acres of superweeds on farmland across the country." Jim

Learn why Certified Organic AND Local remain your best first choice in food. Full clarity comes in the form of this new MUST READ article by Ronnie Cummins of Organic Consumers Association. "Over the past few years, the corporate food and biotech industries have stepped up their attacks on the organic label, largely in response to consumer concerns about genetically engineered foods. Industry has a vested interest in tarnishing organics. After all, the organic label guarantees a food product is GMO-free. And with nearly 80 percent of all processed foods containing GMOs (genetically modified organisms), Big Food has good reason to steer consumers away from organic...But no matter how local the food you purchase is, if it isn’t organic, the process used to grow that food polluted ground water, degraded the soil food web, diminished the soil’s capacity to sequester climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases, spread pesticides into the air, poisoned farmworkers, and added to the buildup of toxic residues in your own body...As with local, non-GMO is a good thing. But non-GMO alone doesn't guarantee healthy and sustainable... Consumers since the late 1960s have trusted organic as an alternative to energy and chemical intensive foods." Jim

Hats off to India for resisting abusive negotiators and for standing up for justice to their powerless farmers. American negotiators should be ashamed - their greed does NOT represent the values of the American people. This display of corporate control over our government behavior is intolerable. "Double standards in the WTO rules are also exposed when one realises that India’s subsidies of $12 billion to its 500 million farmers are considered “trade distorting”, while US subsidies of $120 billion to its 2 million farmers are not. India’s subsidies are $25 per farmer, while US subsidies amounts to $60,000 per farmer — that’s 2,40,000 per cent more than Indian subsidies. Yet the US is threatening India and demanding the removal of support to its small and marginal farmers." Jim

Farmers are angry that Syngenta's 'Viptera' GE Corn has ruined China as a market for American corn and has depressed corn prices everywhere. The farmers want compensation and they want Syngenta to stop misrepresenting and selling Viptera GE corn. "In Sioux City, Iowa, lead plaintiffs Cronin Inc. and Jim Ruba Jr. claim that they do not even use GM corn, but they have been hurt..." Jimhttp://www.courthousenews.com/2014/10/06/72147.htm

Consumers Union is a trustworthy outfit which represents the public interest. When Maine was battling corporate dishonesty in our successful GMO Labeling law campaign, CU's Dr Michael Hansen was generous with his time and attended pivotal hearings providing Legislators with convincing and clear testimony on the importance of right-to-know GMO labeling. You will want to read this article which describes the new CU Study. It includes the statistic that due to corporate-created confusion, fully 64% of Americans wrongly equate "natural" with "non-GMO." Right-to-know GMO labeling will correct this orchestrated confusion. Jim

Our thanks to Cornucopia Institute for this new poster that names names. Please share widely. Print out several copies to use as a guide while shopping and for your friends, family and co-workers. Support the companies with your food dollars which support the peoples' right-to-know about GMO food. Jim & Megan http://www.cornucopia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/meas92-prop105.1001.1500px.jpg

Far too many citizens are lulled into complacency and are uncritically accepting of Monsanto's false propaganda that Monsanto MUST "protect" honest farmers by persecuting dishonest farmers who are "stealing" their patented seed technology and that Monsanto only pursues guilty parties. False, false, false. Now please do watch and share this excellent Vimeo video (14:09) from talented filmmaker Mathieu Asselin. 'Monsanto vs. Farmers' is MUST WATCH and exposes the jaw-dropping intimidation of three innocent victims. Jim

'Mother Jones' offers a strong case that Oregon may well be the game-changer when it becomes the first large state to pass Right-to-Know GMO Labeling. Oregon citizens are brighter than most and victory will be assured if they see through the outsider-Big-Money disinformation campaign being waged by former Big Tobacco lobbyists employed by misanthropic self-servers Monsanto and Industrial Food. "Advocates for Oregon's I-92 remain optimistic, however. While rural areas of Washington and California are strongly opposed to labeling, that's less the case so far in Oregon, where GMO contamination incidents have angered farmers and two rural counties have banned cultivation of GM crops. The Oregon measure is also well timed: Young voters, who tend to support labeling, didn't turn out to vote last year in Washington, but Oregonians will cast ballots this year on a pot legalization initiative, which is seen as a potential magnet for the non-AARP crowd. Anti-GMO activists, for the first time, are also funding a registration drive to target young voters". Please donate TODAY to help our allies in Oregon succeed at securing the people's Right-to-Know. Jim https://oregonrighttoknow.ngpvanhost.com/form/8670563269757699840

USDA's fraudulent concept of harmonious "Coexistence" between polluter GE crops and innocent-victim-non-GE crops, such as organic, should be once and for all acknowledged as the illegitimate fabrication of corporate-government collusion. The long and costly history - paid for by taxpayers and victimized farmers - of fallout from episodic GE contamination, like Liberty Link Corn, GE Rice, GE Alfalfa, GE Soybeans, and now TWO GE Wheat discoveries, amply illustrate the reality that Biotech and its government cheerleaders are completely incapable of responsibility and maintaining segregation of their unwanted transgenes from the world's food supply. Jim

Please spend five minutes to watch and SHARE! this excellent video produced by Oregon citizens behind Measure 92. Oregon is a major battleground and the important initiative will be voted on by Oregon voters on November 4. Meanwhile, Biotech and Big Food are pouring in huge amounts in a desperate disinformation and fear campaign. Jim

Four years ago we were part of a group of farmers and researchers from Maine and Vermont who toured organic farms in Denmark. The Danes are remarkable in many ways. As farmers, they are highly educated and exemplary. In Denmark, there are 5.6 million people and 25 million pigs. When a Danish farmer advises about improving pig health by dumping GE feed and avoiding use of the herbicide glyphosate, American farmers would do well to listen. "...so I decided to change the feed from GM to non-GM soy in April 2011 without telling the herdsman on the farm...Two days afterwards, he said to me: 'You have changed the food.' He always notices whenever there is any problem with the feed and tells me. This time was different. Something very good was happening with the food as the pigs were not getting diarrhoea any more. The farm was using two thirds less medicine, saving £7.88 per sow. Not just my farm but three other farms in Denmark that switched from GMO to non GMO feed have also seen the same." Jim & Megan

We know Ed Brown. He is the best and so is this interview (35:54) with host Carol Grieve. His "A New Resistanc...See More

This interview needs to be heard by every mom and grandmother and for that matter, everyone. Today, Food Integrity Now interviewed Ed Brown, of A New Resistance, a film about Glyphoste. This is one of the most passionate and informative interviews we have ever done. Please listen here and share everywhere: bit.ly/1wtrXiM

"Counterpunch" comes out swinging and takes to task the poor journalism in the "New Yorker's" orchestrated bashing of world-renowned good food leader Dr. Vandana Shiva. "Perhaps nothing symbolizes the decline of the New Yorker magazine more than the hatchet job on Vandana Shiva that appears in the latest issue. Written by Michael Specter, the author of “Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress”, the article is a meretricious defense of genetically modified organisms (GMO) relying on one dodgy source after another." Jim

If you have any doubt over the worth of Monsanto's word, then this brilliant collection of photographs by talented photographer Mathieu Asselin will be MUST VIEW. "'This photographic investigation is the result of an outrage that became an idea, an idea that became long hours of travel and sincere encounters. It doesn’t pretend to present scientific proof, it is rather the recollection of visual testimonies from people and landscapes deeply affected by this company. And this project is the translation of these testimonies and the translation of my outrage.'” Jim

The notorious Grocery Manufacturers Association - not one to respect the people's right to Fair and honest electoral process - is determined to make a train wreck the people's desire for right-to-know GMO Labeling in Vermont. "...state attorney general William H. Sorrell said Act 120 does not violate the First amendment because the disclosures it mandates are 'purely factual' and the law 'does not require manufacturers to state a particular viewpoint, such as whether GE foods are good or bad..." GMA is being sued by Washington State's AG for breath-taking campaign finance violations in their dishonest sleaze campaign against GMO labeling last year. Jim

A victory in either Colorado or Oregon will be a major victory for the people's Right-to-Know and a devastating blow to Biotech and their belligerent self-serving lack of transparency. "More than 60 countries worldwide require labeling, including the European Union, which launched a law in 1997. Europe has yet to conclude a genetically modified food poses health risks, but the EU has argued that labeling hasn’t spurred price increases, which is a common warning from opponents of labeling, most of them major biotech companies such as Monsanto or big lobbying groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association." Jim

he June 2013 unanimous 9-0 decision of the Supreme Court banning the patenting of human genes 'got it exactly right' says the UK's 'The Guardian.' We agree. "In the US, the Patent Office which had implemented the tripartite patent policy was granting thousands of patents over isolated human DNA...By 2005 over 20% of the human genome was the subject of US patents...The US Supreme Court held that the isolation of DNA from a human being does not result in something that displays 'markedly different characteristics from any found in nature'...Human DNA regardless of its form, belongs to no one. No one invented it. And no one should be able to patent it." Here's background on precedent setting AMP v. Myriad ruling.

The reality of anarchy in the conduct of GE crop test plots deserves to be recognized as a national scandal. Genetic contamination and unintentional unapproved GE crop entry into trade channels merely serve to hint at a failing system managed by disinterest and incompetence. This Hearst investigatory article exposes the problem and provides good insight into the widespread mayhem. "The documents show how the obscure Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), part of the government agency charged with promoting and protecting agriculture, takes an industry-friendly approach to regulating as it seeks to prevent contamination or economic harm from field trials...The Agriculture Department issued just two civil penalties for field trials infractions since 2010 despite sending out nearly 200 notices of non-compliance...The Agriculture Department's inspector general in 2005 identified 'weaknesses in inspections and enforcement' as basic as being unaware of the locations of field trials...'We need government agencies that are independent and aggressive in pushing the public interest, but that's not what we're seeing at USDA,' said Harl, who has been a member of a half-dozen federal advisory panels." Jim